Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus vs Apple iPhone 13
57
out of 100
VS
65
out of 100
Here we compared two flagship smartphones: the 6.7-inch Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus (with Exynos 2100) that was released on January 14, 2021, against the Apple iPhone 13, which is powered by Apple A15 Bionic and came out 8 months after. On this page, you will find tests, full specs, strengths, and weaknesses of each of the devices.
Select the amount of RAM to evaluate performance and value for money more precisely
Key differences
Reasons to consider the Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus
- Higher display refresh rate – 120 Hz
- Comes with 1573 mAh larger battery capacity: 4800 vs 3227 mAh
- Has a 0.6 inch larger screen size
- Has 2x more RAM: 8GB versus 4GB
- The rear camera has a 1.1x optical zoom
- Fingerprint scanner
- Slow-motion recording at 960FPS
- Uses a faster type of memory: LPDDR5 2750 MHz
- Has 2 SIM card slots
Reasons to consider the Apple iPhone 13
- 39% better performance in AnTuTu Benchmark (1413K versus 1017K)
- Better camera quality (According to DxOMark rating)
- Shows 12% longer battery life (23:23 vs 20:53 hours)
- 17% higher pixel density (460 vs 394 PPI)
- 78% faster in single-core GeekBench 6 test: 2241 and 1259 points
- Weighs 26 grams less
- The phone is 8 months newer
Review
Display
Screen quality, color accuracy, brightness
Camera
Photo and video recording quality
Performance
CPU and memory performance (apps, system)
Gaming
Capabilities for playing modern games
Battery
Battery life, charging type and speed
Connectivity
Networks, ports, data transmission
Select your primary usage scenario to get a more accurate DeviceFacts Score
Value for money (Beta)
Tests and specifications
Comparison table of technical specifications and testsDisplay
| Type | Dynamic AMOLED | OLED |
| Size | 6.7 inches | 6.1 inches |
| Resolution | 1080 x 2400 pixels | 1170 x 2532 pixels |
| Aspect ratio | 20:9 | 19.5:9 |
| PPI | 394 ppi | 460 ppi |
| Refresh rate | 120 Hz | 60 Hz |
| Adaptive refresh rate | Yes (48-120 Hz) | No |
| Max rated brightness | 1300 nits | 800 nits |
| Max rated brightness in HDR | - | 1200 nits |
| HDR support | Yes, HDR10+ | Yes, Dolby Vision |
| Screen protection | Gorilla Glass Victus | - |
| Screen-to-body ratio | 88.7% | 87.1% |
| Display features | - DCI-P3 - Always-On Display |
- DCI-P3 |
| RGB color space | 98.9% | 129% |
| PWM | 240 Hz | 609 Hz |
| Response time | 6.2 ms | 7.5 ms |
| Contrast | ∞ Infinity | ∞ Infinity |
Screen space comparison
Galaxy S21 Plus
6.7″ (20:9 ratio) = 16.8 in2
iPhone 13
6.1″ (19.5:9 ratio) = 14.2 in2
~18% more screen space
Peak brightness test (auto)
Design and build
| Height | 161.5 mm (6.36 inches) | 146.7 mm (5.78 inches) |
| Width | 75.6 mm (2.98 inches) | 71.5 mm (2.81 inches) |
| Thickness | 7.8 mm (0.31 inches) | 7.65 mm (0.3 inches) |
| Weight | 200 g (7.05 oz) | 174 g (6.14 oz) |
| Waterproof | IP68 | IP68 |
| Rear material | Glass | Glass |
| Frame material | Metal | Metal |
| Colors | Black, Silver, Gold, Red, Purple | White, Black, Blue, Green, Red, Pink |
| Fingerprint scanner | Yes, in-display | No |
Screen-to-body ratio
Performance
| Chipset | Samsung Exynos 2100 | Apple A15 Bionic |
| Max clock | 2900 MHz | 3230 MHz |
| CPU cores | 8 (1 + 3 + 4) | 6 (2 + 4) |
| Architecture | - 4 cores at 2.2 GHz: Cortex-A55 - 3 cores at 2.81 GHz: Cortex-A78 - 1 core at 2.91 GHz: Cortex-X1 |
- 4 cores at 2.02 GHz: Blizzard - 2 cores at 3.23 GHz: Avalanche |
| Manufacturing | Samsung | TSMC |
| Lithography process | 5 nanometers | 5 nanometers |
| Neural processor (NPU) | Yes | Apple Neural Engine |
| Graphics | Mali-G78 MP14 | Apple GPU (4 cores) |
| GPU shading units | 448 | 640 |
| GPU clock | 854 MHz | 1338 MHz |
| FLOPS | ~765.2 GFLOPS | ~1712.6 GFLOPS |
Benchmarks
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
Compute Score (GPU)
| Compute Score (GPU) | 6699 | 18447 |
| Single-core score | 1259 | 2241 |
| Multi-core score | 3255 | 5317 |
AnTuTu Benchmark 11
| CPU | 380634 | 410975 |
| GPU | 187261 | 370837 |
| Memory | 186352 | 164151 |
| UX | 263526 | 467312 |
| Total score | 1017773 | 1413275 |
| Samples | [9 tests] | [26 tests] |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Stability | - | 76% |
| Graphics test | - | 12 FPS |
| Section 1 | - | 16 FPS |
| Section 2 | - | 12 FPS |
| Section 3 | - | 9 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 3225 |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Stability | - | 74% |
| Graphics test | - | 14 FPS |
| Graphics score | - | 2445 |
Recent User Tests
Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-09-01 (Md. Iqbal Talukder) | AnTuTu 11 | 1014567 |
| 📘 2026-05-30 (Júnior) | AnTuTu 11 | 1049711 |
| 📘 2026-05-08 (Arcytechsure) | AnTuTu 11 | 1125806 |
| 📘 2026-04-18 (Aziz Jr) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 6699 |
| 📘 2026-04-18 (Aziz Jr) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 1124 / 3273 |
Apple iPhone 13
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 📘 2026-09-19 (Vova) | AnTuTu 11 | 1297615 |
| 📘 2026-09-18 (charlesddd) | AnTuTu 11 | 1461749 |
| 📘 2026-09-08 (lUjekSh) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 18864 |
| 📘 2026-09-08 (lUjekSh) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 2327 / 5604 |
| 📘 2026-09-03 (Yulik🇺🇦) | AnTuTu 11 | 1289105 |
Memory
| RAM size | 8 GB | 4 GB |
| Memory type | LPDDR5 | LPDDR4X |
| Memory clock | 2750 MHz | 2133 MHz |
| Channels | 2 | 2 |
| Storage size | 128 GB | 128 GB |
| Storage type | UFS 3.1 | NVMe |
| Memory card | No | No |
Software
| Operating system | Android 11 (Can be upgraded to Android 15) | iOS 15 (Can be upgraded to iOS 27) |
| ROM | One UI 7.0 | - |
| OS size | 27.2 GB | 18 GB |
| OS updates | 2 years | - |
| Security updates | 4 years | - |
Battery
| Capacity | 4800 mAh | 3227 mAh |
| Max charge power | 25 W | 20 W |
| Battery type | Li-Ion | Li-Ion |
| Replaceable | No | No |
| Wireless charging | Yes (15 W) | Yes (7.5 W) |
| Reverse charging | Yes, (wireless) | No |
| Bypass charging | - | No |
| Fast charging | Yes (54% in 30 min) | Yes (54% in 30 min) |
| Full charging time | 1:12 hr | 1:46 hr |
| Web browsing | 07:28 hr | 09:29 hr |
| Watching video | 13:15 hr | 13:58 hr |
| Gaming | 05:04 hr | 05:12 hr |
| Standby | 105 hr | 114 hr |
General battery life
Main camera
| Matrix | 12 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 4000 x 3000 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Zoom | Optical, 1.1x | Digital |
| Flash | Dual LED | Dual LED |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| 8K video recording | Up to 24FPS | No |
| 4K video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| 1080p video recording | Up to 60FPS | Up to 60FPS |
| Slow motion | 960 FPS (720p) | 240 FPS (1080p) |
| Angle of widest lens | 120° | 120° |
| Lenses | 1) Standard: 12 MP 2) Telephoto: 64 MP 3) Ultrawide: 12 MP |
1) Standard: 12 MP 2) Ultrawide: 12 MP |
| Camera features | - Bokeh mode - Pro mode - RAW support |
- Bokeh mode - Pro mode |
| Image resolution | 12 MP | 12 MP |
| Aperture | f/1.8 | f/1.6 |
| Focal length | 26 mm | 26 mm |
| Sensor | Sony IMX555 | Sony IMX603 |
| Sensor size | 1/1.76" (≈ 0.57 inch) | 1/1.9" (≈ 0.53 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.8 micron | 1.7 micron |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) |
| Stabilization | Optical | Optical |
| Image resolution | 64 MP | - |
| Aperture | f/2.0 | - |
| Focal length | 28 mm | - |
| Sensor | Samsung Bright S5KGW2 | - |
| Sensor size | 1/1.72" (≈ 0.58 inch) | - |
| Pixel size | 0.8 micron | - |
| Stabilization | Optical | - |
| Image resolution | 12 MP | 12 MP |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.4 |
| Focal length | 13 mm | 14 mm |
| Sensor | Sony IMX563 | Sony IMX372 |
| Sensor size | 1/2.55" (≈ 0.39 inch) | 1/3.4" (≈ 0.29 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.4 micron | 1.4 micron |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
DxOMark main camera tests
Photo quality
Video quality
Generic main camera score
| Bokeh | 70 | 65 |
| Preview | 60 | 76 |
| Zoom | 114 | 65 |
| Samples | Photo samples of Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus from DxOMark | Photo samples of Apple iPhone 13 from DxOMark |
Selfie camera
| Megapixels | 10 megapixels | 12 megapixels |
| Image resolution | 3872 x 2592 | 4032 x 3024 |
| Aperture | f/2.2 | f/2.2 |
| Focal length | 26 mm | 23 mm |
| Sensor | Sony IMX374 | Sony IMX514 |
| Sensor size | 1/3.24" (≈ 0.31 inch) | 1/3.6" (≈ 0.28 inch) |
| Pixel size | 1.22 micron | - |
| Autofocus | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) | Phase autofocus (Dual Pixel) |
| Stabilization | Digital | Digital |
| Video resolution | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS | 2160p (4K) at 60 FPS |
| Depth sensor (TOF 3D) | No | Yes |
DxOMark front camera
| Photo | - | 128 |
| Video | - | 143 |
Connectivity
| Wi-Fi standard | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) | Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax) |
| Wi-Fi features | - Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
- Dual Band - Wi-Fi MiMO - Wi-Fi Direct - Wi-Fi Hotspot - Wi-Fi Display |
| Bluetooth version | 5 | 5 |
| Bluetooth features | LE, A2DP | LE, A2DP |
| USB type | USB Type-C | - |
| USB version | 3.2 | 2 |
| USB features | - Charging - USB-Storage mode - USB-Host mode - OTG |
- Charging - USB-Storage mode - OTG |
| GPS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
| NFC* | Yes | Yes |
| Infrared port | No | No |
| Number of SIM* | 2 | 1 |
| Type of SIM card | Nano | Nano |
| Multi SIM mode | Standby | - |
| eSIM support* | Yes | Yes |
| Hybrid slot | No | No |
| LTE Cat* | 24 | 18 |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
Sound
| Speakers | Stereo | Stereo |
| Headphone audio jack | No | No |
| FM radio | No | No |
| Dolby Atmos | Yes | Yes |
Speakers test
Max loudness
Other
| Category | Flagship | Flagship |
| Announced | January 2021 | September 2021 |
| Release date | February 2021 | September 2021 |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $1000 | $800 |
| Successor | - Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus | - Apple iPhone 17 |
| SAR (head) | 0.54 W/kg | 0.99 W/kg |
| SAR (body) | 1.33 W/kg | 0.98 W/kg |
| Sensors | - Hall-effect sensor - Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Fingerprint |
- Barometer - Proximity sensor - Gyroscope - Accelerometer - Ambient light sensor - Compass - Face recognition sensor |
*Disclaimer! NFC, GSM network support, and some other specs can be different depending on the country.
Conclusion
After analyzing all the data, we think that the Apple iPhone 13 is definitely a better buy.
Cast your vote
Total votes: 416